


Forgiveness; Can You Imagine?

by EmberandShadow



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Forgiveness, Kinda fluff, Light Angst, M/M, a soft ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 07:13:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9537389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberandShadow/pseuds/EmberandShadow
Summary: "They are trying to do the unimaginable."Set after 3x14 Ed runs into Oswald and they wonder if they can work their way back to what they were before.





	

"Oswald!" Ed yells through the rain.

It's pouring. Coming down so hard it's as if the sky opened up to weep just for them and their broken love. And Ed can't help but feel responsible. And he is, but not entirely. It took both of them to break what they had.

Ed hadn't even known Oswald was alive, let alone back in Gotham. But as soon as Ed had seen him, on the other side of the street on this rainy night, he felt that sharp sting of guilt he'd had only days before. A feeling he had shoved down because he shouldn't feel guilty; Oswald had gotten exactly what he deserved.

And yet...

*****

In truth, it had taken Ed a while to feel anything at all in regards to the bird.

He'd pulled the trigger, felt the reverberation of the gun in his hand, felt the wind on his skin, the tear on his cheek. But after the act itself, after he had pushed Oswald into the water below, and with him all his anger and hurt, he was left with nothing. At least, nothing in regards to Oswald; the man had left a hole in him that Ed was not yet aware of.

The bird in question had been missing ever since Ed shot him, and logically, he presumed Oswald dead. It had taken Ed several days to even think about him again, but one day, he couldn't help it. He felt it for the first time a couple days ago, that twinge of guilt. He had felt it in the morning, as he was just waking up, and he thought about the emptiness in his bed. He'd written it off as simply missing Isabella, but later, when he walked through his empty apartment, he realized there was something _missing_. A silence when there would usually have been noise. It took him a while to realize that what was missing was _Oswald._ He wasn't used to mornings without Oswald prattling on about one thing or another. He was lonely in the absence of Oswald's voice dropping lower, becoming more intimate, when they were alone. His afternoons became dull when he wasn't hearing the occasional, "Ed, are you listening?"

He'd felt it then; a cord of guilt that wrapped around his heart and tugged.

****

He feels that now, in the rain, standing several feet behind the man who just froze at the sound of his own name on Ed's lips. And then he begins to walk again, quicker. Ed jogs after him, too many thoughts in his heart and too many words on his lips to do anything but reach out for Oswald and breathe out his name once more.

" _Don't touch me_." Oswald hisses the moment Ed's hand meets the fabric of his suit.

But Ed can't let him go, not now, not when he's on the verge of realizing something buried so deep inside of him he hadn't even thought it was there. So he makes a split second decision and takes hold of Oswald's shoulders, pulling him back and then turning him to press him into the side of a building. And looking down into Oswald's terrified eyes he realizes that he probably should have been more gentle.

"Ed, please I-" Ed knows he's about to beg for his life. He blinks, lets his arms fall from Oswald's shoulders, and steps back. His actions make Oswald stop speaking.

"Oswald." The name seems to be the only thing Ed can get out. He wants to say so much, he wants to say, " _I am so sorry, Oswald_." And, " _You were right, I need you_." And, " _I shouldn't have gone so far_." But he can't. He can't say any of it. All he's capable of doing in this moment is standing in front of Oswald, staring into his wide, blue, eyes while the rain soaks through his clothes and straight into his skin.

"Please don't hurt me." Ed can't tell if it's the rain or if Oswald is really beginning to cry, but he can hear the desperation, the fear in Oswald's voice.

He drops to his knees, ignoring the pain, and grips Oswald's shirt with shaking hands. "Forgive me?"

Oswald stares down at him in confusion, unsure if this is a trick, unsure if he can trust what's happening right now, unsure if he could ever even forgive Ed anyway. But Ed is on his knees in front of him crying, hands shaking, drenched in the rain and he asks it again, asks, "Forgive me?" With such desperation and need in his voice that Oswald is torn completely between walking away now or opening himself up once again for pain.

Oswald sighs, knowing that he can't disobey his heart, knowing in his deepest heart that he was ready to forgive Ed the moment he realized he truly loved him. So he drops to his knee's as well, more gracefully and softly than Ed, and places a hand over Ed's heart, the other on his cheek.

"We can work on it." He says.

Ed crumbles into him, folds into his arms and they end up embracing, in the rain, under the light of a streetlamp. 

Oswald doesn't know if he can fully forgive Ed, not yet anyway, but maybe- just maybe, if they take it slow- one day he can.

**Author's Note:**

> I have too many feelings right now


End file.
